Ski Mask Robberies in DC Addressed by Faith Wheeler

WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) --- ANC Commissioner Faith Wheeler were looking at the listserv for the Metropolitan Police Department's Fourth District and saw a trend:

"A number of reports that people are assaulted by folks with ski masks on, black ski masks."

It hit home.

"I was going down Fourth Street and got into my car. It was dusk and I was just pulling out and I noticed a young man coming up opposite, walking up the sidewalk, and pulling a ski mask down over his face and standing in the middle of the road in my path, so I basically focused on the space between the parked cars and him and that car took off really fast," she said as she explained how she averted what she believed was to be a carjacking attempt.

"What we do right now? The best I can think of is what I've been asking for for quite some time, actually, more police patrol officers, more bike patrol officers, and more unmarked cars and more plain clothed policeman," she said.

"Most criminals and most lawbreakers do not want to get caught. That is human nature, so, if you don't know whether you're being observed but you might be observed and it's clear that you might be observed, I think it's likely that you would hesitate to break the law," Wheeler told WUSA-9.